Search form

Baby-farmer Minnie Dean hanged

12 August 1895

In 1895 Minnie Dean became the first (and only) woman to be hanged by law in New Zealand.

Known as the ‘Winton baby farmer’, she had been convicted of the murder of baby Dorothy Edith Carter following a sensational trial in Invercargill. Dean was hanged at 8 a.m. at Invercargill Gaol. Newspapers reported that ‘She walked firmly to the scaffold, and said in answer to the Sheriff − “I have nothing to say except that I am innocent.” There was no hitch in the arrangements, and the prisoner’s death was instantaneous.’

General

Follow Us

All text is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence. Commercial re-use may be allowed on request. All non-text content is subject to specific conditions. This site is produced by the Research and Publishing Group of the New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Meet the NZHistory team